Infrastructure
Who Loses Power the Longest
Gary and Puerto Rico are 2,000 miles apart. Their grids fail along the same fault line: poverty.
Editor's Picks
Hand-picked stories from the newsroom
Opinion
Opinion
Whose Table Are We Setting?
Washington quadrupled a beef quota to shave cents off a hamburger, then allocated every ton to one ally. By its own supporters' math it will barely touch grocery prices. So the question is not the volume. It is the sequence, and who was asked to wait.
4 min read
Opinion
Whose Table Are We Setting?
Washington quadrupled a beef quota to shave cents off a hamburger, then allocated every ton to one ally. By its own supporters' math it will barely touch grocery prices. So the question is not the volume. It is the sequence, and who was asked to wait.
4 min read
All Stories
Brad Pitt Tried to Make It Right. When Did Trying to Help Become the Crime?
Brad Pitt put his money, name and reputation behind rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina. The homes had serious problems, and homeowners deserve answers. But when did trying to help make him personally responsible for everything that went wrong?
Opinion
The Hearing Room Is Not a Comment Section
A senator swore at a witness he had summoned, and a Cardiff study says public profanity from the nation's highest officials is at a record high. The authenticity is real. What runs out is the venue: a hearing is the public's room, not the speaker's stage.
Opinion
A Public Office Cannot Sign a Secret With Its Own Public
In April 2024, Jeff Landry hand-signed a mutual nondisclosure agreement with Meta's data center subsidiary, on behalf of the Office of the Governor. The company has its reasons for wanting silence. The harder question is why a public office agreed to keep the secret, and from whom.
Opinion
When Does the Fifth Amendment Stop Being the Fifth Amendment?
A Senate committee voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt after he invoked the Fifth Amendment, arguing his pardon canceled the right. Whether it did is for the courts. But the political question is bigger: can a constitutional protection apply consistently once it becomes inconvenient?
Louisiana
Earthquakes
In a Corner of Louisiana That Isn't Supposed to Shake, the Ground Keeps Moving
On August 21 the ground moved again north of Edgefield. Small on its own. But the magnitude 4.9 that hit the same zone in March was the second-largest quake in Louisiana's recorded history, and insurance, and infrastructure were built for wind and water, not shaking.
4 min read
Earthquakes
In a Corner of Louisiana That Isn't Supposed to Shake, the Ground Keeps Moving
On August 21 the ground moved again north of Edgefield. Small on its own. But the magnitude 4.9 that hit the same zone in March was the second-largest quake in Louisiana's recorded history, and insurance, and infrastructure were built for wind and water, not shaking.
4 min read
State Government
LED Vitals Report - August 2026
The August Economic Vitals report counts 211 projects worth more than $320 billion, adds new measures of port capacity and national data-center investment, and shows a state labor market where jobs and unemployment rose together. The numbers are real. How much gets built is the open question.
News Analysis
New Orleans Put AI on Some 911 Calls. The Ownership Question Is Bigger Than the System.
A screenshot says New Orleans uses AI to prioritize 911 calls. The reality is narrower: duplicate-call handling for known crashes. The real questions are who owns the platform now, and how the city defines a call handled right.
News
Government 101: What Does the New Orleans Clerk of Council Actually Do?
Most residents know the Clerk of Council from roll call. But the office prepares the agenda that opens every meeting, records every vote by name, and maintains the permanent legislative record that lets residents track and verify what the Council does. A Government 101 look at how the office works.
State Government
How to Read Louisiana's Monthly Economic Report
Most Louisianans never read the state's weekly economic reports, yet they signal where leaders believe the economy is headed. The latest Economic Vitals report counts billions in announced investment. The harder question is how much is built.
Community
Community
YouTube Is Doubling Its Monetization Threshold. Here’s What Creators Need to Know Before 2027
YouTube is doubling key monetization requirements for new creators beginning February 1, 2027. The changes will raise the bar for earning ad revenue, requiring 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views, while leaving the 1,000-subscriber requirement unchanged.
3 min read
Community
YouTube Is Doubling Its Monetization Threshold. Here’s What Creators Need to Know Before 2027
YouTube is doubling key monetization requirements for new creators beginning February 1, 2027. The changes will raise the bar for earning ad revenue, requiring 8,000 watch hours or 20 million Shorts views, while leaving the 1,000-subscriber requirement unchanged.
3 min read
Community
Why Oprah Is Closing a School That Was Considered a Success
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls will close after the 2027 school year and return to South Africa's provincial government. The foundation is not ending its mission. It is trading one boarding campus for a national scholarship program built to reach far more girls. Here is the shift.
Community
The Government Already Budgeted for Your Business
The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on contracts every year. The money is already allocated. The opportunities already exist. Most entrepreneurs never find them, not because the work isn't there, but because they're starting in the wrong place.
Community
Retail, Wholesale, and Private Label: Which Path Is Right for Your Business?
In 2009, I launched The Bougie Pooch and learned retail the hard way. By the time I built Fleurty Wick into one of the largest female-owned candle manufacturing companies in the country, I had made a deliberate choice: no storefront, no retail, no customer-facing business. Private label was the stra
Community
THE 1099 DRIVER REALITY CHECK
Every week, drivers sign up for courier and sprinter routes convinced they've found a flexible way to earn serious money. Some are right. A lot are not - and the ones who fail usually fail for the same reason: they calculated gross revenue and stopped there. Before you sign a contract, take on autho
Infrastructure
Infrastructure
Who Loses Power the Longest
Gary and Puerto Rico are 2,000 miles apart. Their grids fail along the same fault line: poverty.
7 min read
Infrastructure
Who Loses Power the Longest
Gary and Puerto Rico are 2,000 miles apart. Their grids fail along the same fault line: poverty.
7 min read
Energy
Louisiana Is a Finalist to Host a Federal Nuclear Campus. One Idea on the Table: Storing Waste Under the Gulf.
Louisiana is one of five finalists for a federal Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campus, and its application floats storing radioactive waste in offshore salt domes near Port Fourchon. The concept is on paper. The locations, the landowners, and the state's own application are not
Investigations
A Plain-Language Guide to the New Orleans City Council Sewerage and Water Board Overhaul
For the first time in roughly 130 years, elected officials you can vote for, not the state legislature, will oversee New Orleans' water, sewer, and drainage. Here is what changes, measure by measure, plus one open question about how the plan was drafted.
Infrastructure & Environment
Sewerage and Water Board answers a threat to its top job with a résumé
New Orleans Council President JP Morrell wants to weigh cutting the Sewerage and Water Board’s highest-paid job before the council takes budget control on Aug. 1. The agency’s answer, published this week, was a detailed recitation of Executive Director Randy Hayman’s career.
Infrastructure
What Actually Causes a Boil Water Advisory, and When Your Water Is Truly Clear Again
The advisory lifts on the street, not in your house. What triggers these orders, why pressure is always the cause, and how to actually clear your own pipes.
Government
Government
Family Detention Returned to Dilley. The Government and the Court Record Describe Two Facilities.
Dilley, in South Texas, is again holding immigrant families, the only such facility now operating in the country. A congressional visit, a Senate report, and federal court filings describe troubling conditions. DHS, ICE, and CoreCivic call the criticism false. Here is what the records establish.
4 min read
Government
Family Detention Returned to Dilley. The Government and the Court Record Describe Two Facilities.
Dilley, in South Texas, is again holding immigrant families, the only such facility now operating in the country. A congressional visit, a Senate report, and federal court filings describe troubling conditions. DHS, ICE, and CoreCivic call the criticism false. Here is what the records establish.
4 min read
Opinion
Say It Before November: Every Candidate on the Ballot Should Commit Now to Accepting the Result
Set that aside. The most consequential thing said about elections tonight was said hours earlier, at a podium, in the form of a non-answer. Asked whether the president would accept November's results, his press secretary did not answer.
Community
The Government Already Budgeted for Your Business
The federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars on contracts every year. The money is already allocated. The opportunities already exist. Most entrepreneurs never find them, not because the work isn't there, but because they're starting in the wrong place.
From the archive
Civic Accountability
'The Conversation' Brings Black Men Together to Talk Voting, Accountability and the Future of New Orleans
All Stories
Louisiana's utility board will decide whether Meta's data center serves the public. It first voted to keep the company's own numbers private.
All Stories
A New Federal Earnings Test Will Decide Which Louisiana College Programs Keep Their Student Loans
All Stories
Brad Pitt Tried to Make It Right. When Did Trying to Help Become the Crime?
Housing
A $10,000 Credit for Aging in Place: What the Federal Bill Would Do, and Where It Stands
Community
YouTube Is Doubling Its Monetization Threshold. Here’s What Creators Need to Know Before 2027
All Stories
A failed vote became a 5-to-1 approval at 1100 Sere. An appeals court undid it.
News Analysis
Restricted, or Reserved? What the Louisiana SPCA's Filings Show About Its Money
117 stories